The Alice books: a socio-cultural commentary
4.3 Regression and 'Progress'
letters (the Mock Turtles' school teaches reeling, writhing, and fainting in coils), exposes their instability"( Hunt, t 995, P 142).
species. These two creatures are linked in that one represents where we come from and the other what may become of us.
The Wonderland Caucus 'race' also sheds light on the Darwinian aspect of the text. It is circular in nature and ends only when the creatures are exhausted and can not go on any further. They are able to stop whenever they wish, and some do fall out of the race. A circle has no distinct sides and therefore no clear beginning or end. A circle is also a symbol of continuation. The 'race' almost suggests that life itself is a continual going round in circles, and there is the idea of 'from dust to dust.' The Dodo has to ponder who has won the race, because the race is not bound by rules of competition. "This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it stood for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said 'Everybody has won, and all must have prizes'" (1982, p23). Subsequently the Dodo tells Alice she must furnish the prizes and as Empson writes, "All the animals win, and Alice because she is Man has therefore to give them comfits, but though they demand this they do not fail to recognize that she is superior"(Gray, 1992, p346).
There is most definitely the establishing of a hierarchical system in play, as Alice is placed at the top of the chain as the benefactor. By laws of nature, humankind is above the animals. The irony though is that it is the extinct Dodo who gives Alice her own thimble as her prize. She is rewarded for her participation by an animal whose extinction is at humankind's hand.
In keeping with Darwin's ideas about our origins, Nature is given a prominent role in the books; Nature serves as a source of refuge for Alice. For instance, she escapes from the animals who are trying to harm her in the White Rabbit's house by taking refuge in the nearby wood. Even though the enormous puppy then hounds her, she is able to avoid being harmed by hiding behind a thistle bush. In this way she is protected from a grisly death. In addition, she escapes the Crow's imminent threat by retreating into the woods, where again she hides.
When Alice walks with the Fawn in the woods where things have no names, one most definitely detects a critique of urbanized, industrialized society. In these woods Alice
and the Fawn operate on a level of equality, not separated by definitions of what they are. In Nature there are pre-established relationships, just as in society, yet in Nature the relationships are based on necessity. For example we have the predator and its prey. They co-exist by means of serving functions. There is no motivation that is not based on either survival or need. Animals are not motivated by greed, lust and power as people are. There is also no interference of human emotions, where people are in constant competition with one another, not through necessity but self-absorption.
We are also presented with a reverse case of evolution in Wonderland when the Duchess's baby turns into a pig. To move from a higher being to a lowly, domesticated animal must signify something for the reader to ponder. It turns into a scavenger. In Jewish as weIJ as other cuhures, the pig is perceived to be an unclean animal. I think that this episode brings up the nature-nurture debate, addressing whether as humans we are genetically programmed to be hwnane, or whether our upbringing determines whether we become civilized individuals.
Why does the baby turn into a pig? There is always method to Lewis Carroll's madness. Peter Hunt (1995) writes in the chapter, 'Transitions (1890-1914), that the:
"doctrine of original sin came to be replaced by scientific theories of evolution which presented the child as biologically, intellectually or socially primitive. Children were 'savages', awaiting the education that would transform them into civilized adults"(p169). Just as it was parents' and adults' God-given duty to mould children into mature adults, so too was England's taming of the 'savages' of the Empire seen in the same light. Adults of inferior races were
seen
as being child-like in that they apparently behaved in the same way that children of superior races did. Hunt also writes that "the uninhibited high spirits of childhood were equated with those of supposedly 'primitive' societies, and progress towards socialization was identified with progress towards civilization Both the family and the extended family of empire required to be ruled with a mixture of kindness, firmness and self-confidence"(l995, p169).In Wonderland, anything is possible. If a baby can devolve into a pig, then the converse is true. A pig can evolve into a baby. The following extract shows how the
possibility of change is of little consequence in Wonderland: " 'Bye-the-bye, what became of the babyT said the Cat. 'I'd nearly forgotten to ask.' 'It turned into a pig,' Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back in a natural way. 'I thought it would,' said the Cat, and vanished again"( 1982, p90). The Cheshire Cat shows that it wouldn't have mattered either way whether the baby had turned into a pig or fig.
CarroU seems to express the idea that class or race does not predetermine ciVility. Are we not all 'human' Carron seems to be asking.
In Through the Looking-Glass, evolution as a subject does not get raised; rather 'evolution' is queried in terms of society and modernisation. The emphasis in this text is to look at society and how progress in technology and the pace of living, have altered our perceptions as we constantly strive to be better and faster and more advanced. Having said this though. there does seem to be a correlation between imagery of the Caucus-race and that of the final banquet:
The candles all grew up to the ceiling, looking like a bed of rushes with frreworks at the top. As to the bottles, they each took a pair of plates, which they hastily fitted on as wings, and so, with forks for legs, went fluttering about in alJ directions: 'and very like birds they look,' Alice thOUght to herself, as well as she couJd in the dreadful confusion that was beginning (1982, p203).
In the accompanying illustration of this scene, we are presented with the same or extremely similar birds from the Caucus race. Is this an attempt to link the idea of Man's origins of the first book to the White Queen's prophetic cry that something is about to happen?
I have already dealt with the Looking-Glass train as a symbol of Capitalism, but it has another aspect to it that is pertinent to Carroll's observations about his industria1 Victorian society. It also operates as the symbol of 'progress'. For it was this technological advance that admitted Britain into the 'golden age' and opened up Victorian eyes to numerous possibilities, both economic and social. Railway transport denoted a transition from the pastoral way of life to the industrial, and was embraced as the way of the future. Yet, if man is dependent upon machines for movement, is he not at the same time cut off from Nature and autonomy? "What is experienced as
being annihilated is the traditional space-time continuum which characterized the old transport technology. Organically embedded in nature as it was, that technology, in its mimetic relationship to the space traversed, pennitted the traveller to perceive that space as a living entity" (Schivelbusch, 1980, p43).
In Alice's experience on the train, there is, firstly, a noticeable lack of descriptive detail about the passing scenery. In fact, the only time that a 'natural' thing is mentioned is when the engine 'screams', before jumping over a brook. Is this another instance of technology conquering nature, and do the engine's 'screams' denote a horror in the act of doing so? The second facet of this episode that intrigues me is that the other passengers are non-human, with the exception of the 'gentleman', who is interestingly enough dressed in white paper. It is all the more strange that these characters converse about modern methods of transport and communication, in a context where Alice is treated as an item to be delivered. Alice is so put out by this dialogue that she wishes she could be back in the woods. Is this a longing to return to our roots?
'She must be labelled "Lass, with care", you know-' And after that other voices went on ('What a number of people there are in the carriage!' thought Alice), saying 'She must go by post, as she's got a head on her-' 'She must be sent as a message by the teJegraph-' 'She must draw the train by herself the rest of the way-' and so on. But the gentleman dressed in white paper leaned forwards and whispered in her ear, 'Never mind what they all say, my dear, but take a return-ticket every time the train stops.' 'Indeed I shan't!' Alice said rather impatiently. 'I don't belong to this raiJway journey at all - I was in a wood just now - and I wish I could get back there!'(I982, p31).
Industrialization and technological progress are most definitely under fire when one examines the textual suggestions made in Through the Looking-Glass. A facet that Carroll appears to be honing in on is that advances bring about a loss of individuality.
The White Knight and his passion for invention speaks volumes about the Victorian attitudes towards 'progress'. It is this character that highlights that "man's inventions may not work for his betterment alone, but may in ways unknown to him work rather to undermine the whole fabric of his existence on the planet" (Tennyson, 1993, p226).
For instance, he creates a box to store sandwiches and clothes, yet its usefulness is undermined by the fuct that it is upside down (to keep the rain out, as he tells Alice).
All his inventions are totally impractica~ but as he maintains, and in keeping with the
Victorian desire to constantly invent new things, " 'It's as well to be provided for everything'''(1982, p182).
The poem he performs for Alice also raises issues about 'progress'. It has strange imagery and we know that it is a nonsense verse. Yet it operates on more than one level. Although he is a complete eccentric, the sentiments that underlie the poem are not to be discredited. The 'nonsense' that he spouts makes a mockery of Carroll's society's odd behaviours. He speaks of 'RowIand's Macassar oil', which does exist and was used for greasing one's hair. Carron then is making an observation, using parody, about the inventions of humankind that serve no real purpose except vanity.
"A world that used it must have been as nonsensical as any that could be devised by the author. And the parody of Wordsworth's leech gatherer seems even more powerful now than in the nineteenth cenlw"y: what could be more foolish than paying for leeches to suck sick people's blood?"(Gray, 1992, p370)